S3 E13: The Glory of Trek

This was the season when Burnham finally became president.

We must say goodbye to Sonia Van Meter, but not before she sends us off on the joy ride that was the season finale of season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery. Lordy, what a ride.

by Sonia Van Meter

Dearest Readers, 

Before we begin,  I’d like to thank you all for joining me on this nerdy little sojourn. I’m not a writer, and this experiment was as much an exercise in practicing a skill as it was in joyriding through a season of great science fiction. I’ve done my best to convey something indirectly over the last 13 weeks, but in case I’ve not always done the best job of demonstrating this through context, allow me a moment to be explicit:

I really, truly, passionately love Star Trek. 

It is as foundational to my being as the influences of my mother and father. I grew up unaware that its lessons about exploration, compassion, tolerance, and striving to better oneself would serve as a North Star for so much of my life, or that the community surrounding it would become instant family the moment I met them. Anyone else who truly and passionately loves Trek will find harbor with me. If you embrace its relentless optimism, its determined decency, its willingness to constantly question and test its fundamental ideals even when the show itself is sometimes a little… lost (see: Next Generation, seasons 1 & 2), you are my people, and if you’ve made it to the end of these recaps and still have the stomach to read me, I remain your humble servant.

One of the things I love so very much about this show is how available it makes itself to so many people, and constantly strives to create a more inclusive universe. Want a rowdy space adventure? They’ve got you. Want unshakable optimism? They’ve got you. Want to know where the future of tech might take us? They’ve got you. Breakdowns of socio-political struggle? They’ve got you. But most importantly, do you want to see a future where you see yourself? Well, they’re definitely working on it. Early iterations of the show mocked humanity's inability to see the human being sitting across from us if they had a different skin color or prayed to a different god, but it was still very much a show about daring White dudes. Now with Discovery, we see a multitude of identities spanning gender, race, orientation, faith, and ableness. Is it perfect? Certainly not. But with every new chapter in the Trek story, we get a little closer.

Star Trek is as foundational to my being as the influences of my mother and father.

That’s not to say this season, and indeed its finale, didn’t have a few rough spots. There were storylines that seemed rushed, characters that were a bit underdeveloped, hard right turns that came out of nowhere, a few ghastly plot devices that really should have been left back in the ‘60s, and in true Trek tradition, things worked out just a little too well for our people. Before attempting this piece I broke the cardinal rule of recap writing and took a peek at some other recap headlines just to see if everyone else was as delighted by this conclusion as I was, and hoo boy. Never underestimate the internet’s ability to take something you love and leave it bloodied and scattered across eight lanes of its superhighway. And to that, I have thoughts.

Ladies, gentlemen, and nonbinary folx--  if you will, a theory:

There is a subset of Star Trek fans who don’t actually like Star Trek. Or rather, they don’t like where it went after they first fell in love with it. There’s a memory in their mind of something perfect and timeless that warmed their souls and made them feel seen. That memory has aged like good wine, becoming richer and more scintillating, and slowly it takes up more and more space in the pleasure center of the brain. And simply because of the passage of time, the longer Trek runs, the farther from that memory the shows get. The new shows have always adhered to the same central themes -- deep space missions of discovery and exploration, the constantly evolving and challenging ethics of coexisting with other species, the depiction of what humanity could accomplish if we finally put aside our cosmetic differences and collaborated on an endeavor bigger than ourselves. But themes can be couched in all manner of circumstances, and for some, perhaps new circumstances aren’t what they want.

Disappointed that the new Trek shows don’t hit the satisfaction mechanism in their heads the same way their beloved memory does, they find threads to pull to unravel episodes, seasons, and sometimes even whole series. New Treks deviate from their familiar norm, and because they’re OG fans of the franchise, righteous indignation sometimes takes over. They feel justified and smug criticising it because they’ve been on board the fan-train since the beginning. And as original Trek fans, they have not just the right but an obligation to assess new Trek show value, pick apart the evolution of the series, and tear it down “from the inside.”

There is a subset of Star Trek fans who don’t actually like Star Trek.

And, look, tremendous respect to folks who aren’t in love with the same things I am. Lord knows I’ve spent my fair share of time eviscerating TV and film for being less than what I’d hoped it would be. I once spent an entire summer and fall screaming (into the void) at Ridley Scott for the cinematic abortion that was Prometheus. (ed. This is a true representation of events.) To this day I have a hard time uttering the film’s title without spitting it from my teeth like a bad oyster. But I’ve also fawned over so much of his work, enjoying everything from brilliant casting, minimalistic dialogue, superb directing, all the way to his love of snow that floats every direction except for straight down. I know the norm of his work, so when a single film went askew, I saw an aberration, not a developing decline. But with Trek, some people are constantly chasing the dragon. And when the new highs aren’t as good as the old ones, venom begins to surge forth onto podcasts, pages, and airwaves.

And to those brave souls who power through season after season of disappointment, a question: Why do you keep watching? Is your guardianship of the franchise a non voidable contract? 

But that question is for them to answer for themselves. I don’t especially need to know. And I don’t care if they think I’m a doe-eyed sap drinking deep from a river of sci-fi failure. Just do me a solid and miss me with your negativity. Trek is still just a show, like every other 50-minute collection on TV. And sometimes they hit grand slams, and sometimes they hit little dribblers for the double play. But I always assumed that if you watch Star Trek, it’s not just because you like sci-fi or space adventures or people painted different colors. The glory of Trek (yes, I beat that phrase like a dead horse, leave it alone) is that it’s always about hope. And it’s always about persevering through adversity, finding a solution, and reaching out to see what lies beyond that horizon. It’s about character and integrity. It’s about facing the hard questions and doing one’s best to find the best answers to them. I am here, and I will always be here, not for the satisfying conclusions, but because the struggle to get there is the very best of humanity.

I don’t care if they think I’m a doe-eyed sap drinking deep from a river of sci-fi failure.

But since a slobber fest is WAY less fun to read than a good scathing review, let’s go ahead and get the griping done up front, shall we? I’m a superfan for sure, but I’m always game for critical analysis. SO:

• Sphere data. Yep. Far and away the biggest loose end. Seriously, what was even the point? It’s the biggest baddest collection of literally everything in the universe and its big contribution to 13 episodes of television was a wee bot-mechanic that turned a few screws and dragged Owo to safety in the 11th hour? If it was never going to be a significant thing, they needed to either find a way to let it go off on its merry way, or have a little more fun with it on the day to day. Given how saucy the data-being was, it could have provided some momentary levity in some of the darker episodes.

• Osyraa. Man. She kinda turned out to be the most basic of bitches. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated that for once the bad guy was actually a woman (and a fabulously ambitious one at that) but at the end of the day she was little more than a Mean Girl with a decent IQ. Bring me Khan. Bring me Borg. Bring me Q. This chick was an abusive boss packing a little heat. Meh.

• Burnham as captain. Burnham makes great TV. She’s a monstrously compelling character. You root for her even when she’s running full speed 100% in the wrong direction. She’s brilliant, driven, dedicated. But are we supposed to forget that she already torpedoed her Star Fleet career once in spectacular fashion, and then just seven episodes earlier she was demoted and threatened with brig time? And now they’re giving her not just a whole damn ship, but the most powerful and capable ship in the fleet? I question the Admiral here in a BIG way, even if I secretly hope this was the season when Burnham finally became president.

• Not one casualty. I think Deep Space Nine and Voyager were a tad more realistic about this, but when gigantic battle scenes start happening in series enders, if you don’t lose at least once major character, it can take you out of the moment. It was a little too fairy-tale to not lose a single bridge crewmember, though I’m pretty psyched at the idea of them all coming back next season.

• TOO MUCH HAPPY. No one’s dead. And literally all the good guys got everything they wanted. That’s not real life. That’s not even sci-fi. That's a Disney movie.

My biggest complaint was in fact that it ended in a stunningly happy manner, but tell me honestly, as the virulent dust of 2020 blows into the first weeks of 2021 contaminating it with its economic woes, civil unrest, and global pandemic, was this not the season finale we all deserved just for getting here? Didn’t you just need, on a cellular level, to see things work out the way you wanted them to? To see hope and faith and compassion and decency conquer the day? To see the good guys win?

But these are supposed to be recaps, and as we’ve yet to actually discuss what happened, allow me to sum up:

They didn’t just find the source of the burn, they neutralized it. And the way to neutralize it was to save a life, and deliver that life back to his home world, with a mentor and friend in Saru who was only too eager to take on the task. Michael Burnham and the bridge crew team up to save the day, risking life and limb, ultimately beating the bad guys with clever ideas and snappy quips. Stamets will most likely never forgive Burnham for blowing him off the ship when he was the only person in a position to steer Discovery back to the Verubin nebula where his entire family was withering from radiation poisoning, but it demonstrated finally that Burnham was able to focus on primary objectives even if it meant sacrificing friends and crewmembers, thus making her, at long last, captain material (she said with a grimace). Admiral Vance is finally won over by the Discovery crew’s capabilities and determination, and even cracks a smile in Burnham’s direction when he offers her the captain’s chair. Book achieved a new level of mental connection with his surroundings that enabled him to direct the spore drive. He’s also found a permanent home on board. Burnham has found a relationship with a man that isn’t interwoven with torture or trauma. Oh, and Mama Burnham comes through for her daughter in a major way, sending military support from Ni’Var just when the Federation needs it, opening the door for the planet to perhaps rejoin the Federation some day. 

Adira and Dr. Culber get home safe. The bridge crew all survives near suffocation to return to their duties almost immediately. The Viridian and her Emerald Chain crew complement are destroyed in sumptuous slow motion. Discovery is restored. Gray finds a way to exist outside the confines of Adira’s mind. Oh, and the DOT-23 who pulled the heroic save with Owo? Yeah, it was salvaged too.

After the last 12 months, two gigantic scoops of chocolate covered happy endings is what I think we all needed.

...did I miss anything? I mean literally everything ended up perfectly, right down to the hero’s welcome Discovery is given when they return from the Verubin nebula to HQ. And even though this ending contained a handful of turns I’d ordinarily be annoyed by, I can’t even bring myself to be mad about it. After the last 12 months, two gigantic scoops of chocolate covered happy endings is what I think we all needed.

But saccharin as it may have been, Star Trek is always thought provoking, and as the credits rolled I found myself reflecting on where the season had taken us, and what the grand lesson I might take from it was. And it was crystal clear: Regardless of the circumstances its characters find themselves, Star Trek always demands the best of them. And when they find the courage to be bold and do what they know is right, they are almost always rewarded for their actions. They win their prize, solve the problem, save lives, and save the day. It’s a lovely universe where good deeds are remunerated, and the ripples of kindness travel through entire star systems without losing their strength. Even though a struggling galaxy had lost faith in the Federation, the small gestures of selflessness and kindness made by Discovery combined with the accountability they imposed on those who would abuse the vulnerable consistently won even the most disheartened individual to their cause. And that, friends, now as much as ever, is the road that we should follow. 

Sonia Van Meter, Larry Wilmore’s nemesis, is an award-winning political consultant, a partner in the Truman National Security Project, and former aspiring Mars colonist. Follow her on Twitter at @bourbonface.

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